Pulled Pork Sandwich - Asian Inspired
Total time: 30 minutes
As I said in the post for the Pulled Pork Sandwich - BBQ Style recipe, you can’t beat a pulled pork sandwich with pickles and a vinegary slaw between a potato bun! We will stick to that philosophy in this Asian inspired pulled pork sandwich. By swapping the bread and butter pickles for pickled red onions and fresh cucumber, swapping the bbq sauce for an “à la minute” sriracha mayonnaise, and by bringing fish sauce, rice vinegar, ginger, and lime juice to the slaw we can create this gem of a sandwich. If I could only have one, I’d pick this one over the BBQ style sandwich. But – you should always have two! So have one of each. Plus, if you are smoking your own pork shoulder, you are going to want to change it up. That is a lot of meat and anyone would get sick of eating that many BBQ pulled pork sandwiches. Variety is the spice of life. I will have one more recipe coming next that uses leftover pulled pork in a cold soba noodle salad.
I want to touch on the à la minute sriracha mayo. First of all, it just makes me laugh to call it that. A la minute just means prepared to order. Since the kewpie mayo comes in a squeeze bottle, and the sriracha comes in a squeeze bottle, it just makes sense to squirt each on the bun and then combine. Also, less dishes. If you don’t have kewpie mayo and are using a mayo from a jar, I would recommend that you make the sriracha mayo in a small bowl and then spread that onto the buns.
You may be wondering why I didn’t make the slaw with napa cabbage. That is because I had half of a head of green cabbage leftover from when I made the BBQ pulled pork sandwich. This slaw would be great with napa cabbage!
This pulled pork sandwich is pretty darn good cold and at room temperature too.
Servings/Suggestions
Savoy or napa cabbage would work as well for the slaw
Any cucumber will work, I just prefer Persian cucumbers
If you don’t have kewpie mayo, use whichever mayo you have
Ingredients
Potato rolls
or the bread/roll of your choice
Pulled pork
either homemade or purchased from your favorite bbq restaurant
Thinly sliced Persian cucumbers
we will need around 7 slices per sandwich
Kewpie mayo
Sriracha
For the slaw
1/2 head of green cabbage
1 tablespoon kosher salt
4 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 inch piece of ginger
1 lime
1/2 bunch of cilantro
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 teaspoon of gochujaru or togarashi (optional)
For the pickled red onions
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons fish sauce
4 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons sambal
2 garlic cloves
1 inch piece of ginger
1/2 red onion
1 lime
Directions
Step 1
To make the pickled red onions, add the rice vinegar, fish sauce, water, sugar, and sambal to a small pot. Peel the garlic cloves and grate them into the pot with a microplane. Peel the ginger with a spoon and grate into the pot with a microplane until you have grated around 1 tablespoon of ginger. Stir well and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Meanwhile, thinly slice the red onion. Once the pickling liquid is boiling, stir well again. Add the thinly sliced red onion, stir, and cook for 1 minute. Remove from heat.
Step 2
To make the slaw, first cut the cabbage in half. Cut out the core. Slice the cabbage as thinly as you can, then chop it up a bit so that the pieces of cabbage are roughly 1 inch in length. In a large bowl, add the cabbage, the kosher salt, and 4 tablespoons of rice vinegar. Toss well (I prefer to use tongs). Peel the skin off of the ginger with a spoon. Then grate the peeled ginger into the bowl with a microplane. Once you feel like you have roughly 1 tablespoon of ginger in there you can stop. Use the microplane to zest the lime into the bowl, then cut the lime in half and squeeze the juice into the bowl. Now we need to cut the cilantro. Start at the the stem end, and thinly slice the stems. As you get into the leaves and more tender stems, you can roughly chop. Add the cilantro to the bowl along with 1 tablespoon of fish sauce. Add the gochujaru or togarashi, if using. Toss well.
Step 3
Once the pickling liquid has cooled, add the juice from 1/2 of a lime. If it isn’t a very juicy lime, add the juice from the other half of the lime as well. Stir. Go ahead and toss the slaw again.
Step 4
Toast your buns, on the cut side only. I prefer to do this under the broiler. Just make sure to keep your eye on it and take the buns out as soon as they start to brown. Under the broiler, things can go from browned to burned in a hurry. We are toasting just to the give the bun a bit of structural integrity. Go ahead and toss the slaw again.
Step 5
Heat up the pork (if necessary). I prefer to do this under the broiler too. Just put your pork on some aluminum foil on a baking sheet or a sizzle platter. Toss in a bit of the pickling liquid and place under the broiler until warmed through.
Step 6
Assemble the pulled pork sandwich. On the bottom bun, squirt a bit of kewpie mayo and a bit of sriracha. Use a knife or a spatula to combine and spread on the bun. Then, arrange the cucumber slices on top of the sriracha mayo. Top the cucumber with some of the picked red onions. Then put the pulled pork on top of the cucumber and pickled onions. Then put the slaw on top of the pork. Put the top bun on top of the slaw and press down. Enjoy immediately, or wrap in aluminum foil to enjoy later.
Pulled Pork Sandwich - Asian Inspired
Ingredients:
- Potato rolls
- Pulled pork
- Thinly sliced Persian cucumbers
- Kewpie mayo
- Sriracha
- 1/2 head of green cabbage
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- 4 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 1 inch piece of ginger
- 1 lime
- 1/2 bunch of cilantro
- 1 tablespoon fish sauce
- 1 teaspoon of gochujaru or togarashi (optional)
- 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
- 2 tablespoons fish sauce
- 4 tablespoons water
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons sambal
- 2 garlic cloves
- 1 inch piece of ginger
- 1/2 red onion
- 1 lime
Instructions:
- To make the pickled red onions, add the rice vinegar, fish sauce, water, sugar, and sambal to a small pot. Peel the garlic cloves and grate them into the pot with a microplane. Peel the ginger with a spoon and grate into the pot with a microplane until you have grated around 1 tablespoon of ginger. Stir well and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Meanwhile, thinly slice the red onion. Once the pickling liquid is boiling, stir well again. Add the thinly sliced red onion, stir, and cook for 1 minute. Remove from heat.
- To make the slaw, first cut the cabbage in half. Cut out the core. Slice the cabbage as thinly as you can, then chop it up a bit so that the pieces of cabbage are roughly 1 inch in length. In a large bowl, add the cabbage, the kosher salt, and 4 tablespoons of rice vinegar. Toss well (I prefer to use tongs). Peel the skin off of the ginger with a spoon. Then grate the peeled ginger into the bowl with a microplane. Once you feel like you have roughly 1 tablespoon of ginger in there you can stop. Use the microplane to zest the lime into the bowl, then cut the lime in half and squeeze the juice into the bowl. Now we need to cut the cilantro. Start at the the stem end, and thinly slice the stems. As you get into the leaves and more tender stems, you can roughly chop. Add the cilantro to the bowl along with 1 tablespoon of fish sauce. Add the gochujaru or togarashi, if using. Toss well.
- Once the pickling liquid has cooled, add the juice from 1/2 of a lime. If it isn’t a very juicy lime, add the juice from the other half of the lime as well. Stir. Go ahead and toss the slaw again.
- Toast your buns, on the cut side only. I prefer to do this under the broiler. Just make sure to keep your eye on it and take the buns out as soon as they start to brown. Under the broiler, things can go from browned to burned in a hurry. We are toasting just to the give the bun a bit of structural integrity. Go ahead and toss the slaw again.
- Heat up the pork (if necessary). I prefer to do this under the broiler too. Just put your pork on some aluminum foil on a baking sheet or a sizzle platter. Toss in a bit of the pickling liquid and place under the broiler until warmed through.
- Assemble the pulled pork sandwich. On the bottom bun, squirt a bit of kewpie mayo and a bit of sriracha. Use a knife or a spatula to combine and spread on the bun. Then, arrange the cucumber slices on top of the sriracha mayo. Top the cucumber with some of the picked red onions. Then put the pulled pork on top of the cucumber and pickled onions. Then put the slaw on top of the pork. Put the top bun on top of the slaw and press down. Enjoy immediately, or wrap in aluminum foil to enjoy later.